


For Every Instance of Beauty, Many Souls Must be Trampled

by steelplatedhearts



Category: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-25
Updated: 2012-11-25
Packaged: 2017-11-19 12:02:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/573056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steelplatedhearts/pseuds/steelplatedhearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ravenna taught her that beauty is power, and Snow White has learned her lesson too well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Every Instance of Beauty, Many Souls Must be Trampled

She may have had hair black as a raven’s wing, lips red as blood, and skin as white as snow, but that didn’t change the fact that she was getting wrinkles around her eyes.

She leaned forward, staring her reflection down as she smoothed out her skin with one delicate finger.

Beauty is power.

The Queen—Ravenna—had lived by that motto. Snow White had always assumed that it didn’t apply to her. After all, she was not wrapped up in her looks. She didn’t depend on them to have a fulfilling life.

More importantly, she didn’t use her beauty as a weapon. She didn’t actively use it to harm, or punish, or control. But standing in front of the mirror, eyes fixated on the lines in her face, she had to think about it.

Maybe she didn’t use her looks to hurt, but she couldn’t deny that it was the basis of her rule.

By fairest blood was it done, and only by fairest blood can it be undone.

Fairest blood. That meant her.

That meant everything she’d ever done, everything she’d accomplished, had only come about because she was pretty.

She had managed to rule—wisely, she hoped—without leaning on her face, but these lines—

Well, they just explained some things.

Like brief, quick glances from people in the court. Like the patronizing edge that had crept into William’s voice. Like smirks from younger, prettier girls at the height of their youth.

Ravenna had been a terrible, vicious ruler.

But maybe she’d had the right idea about some things.

—

”Did we ever figure out how Ravenna pulled off her spell?” she asked William and the Huntsman absently at breakfast one morning as she studied her reflection in the plate.

The Huntsman’s head shot up, and William looked at her warily. “We never tried to find out.”

“Best to just leave it be,” the Huntsman grunted. “Let it die with her.”

Snow White kept her mouth shut after that. Best not to spook either of them.

—

Ravenna hadn’t trusted—well, anyone, and she’d used magical mannequins in place of people when she needed dirty work done. But Snow White was nothing if not persistent, and after following Ravenna’s trail from kingdom to kingdom, she managed to unearth a spell from a friend of a friend of a cousin of—someone.

It didn’t matter. It was definitely Ravenna’s spell, one way or another.

—

Ravenna had failed because she used her beauty as a weapon. She’d used it to control and terrify, for all the wrong reasons.

Snow White was not going to let that happen. She only wanted to keep her face to keep her kingdom alive and flourishing.

She carefully drained the cup filled with milk and the three drops of her blood, murmuring the incantations under her breath.

“By fairest blood it was done, and only by fairest blood can it be undone,” she whispered, checking her reflection.

Smooth as parchment, she noted with satisfaction.

—

“I don’t know how you do it, your Majesty,” Greta said as they were taking a walk in the palace gardens one morning. “I found a crop of grey hairs the other day, and you’re still walking around as lovely as you ever were.”

Snow White smiled demurely. “I mostly just drink a lot of herbal teas.”

—

What point was having a kingdom when there was nobody to share it with?

Snow White didn’t know how Ravenna had done it, how she’d lived all those lifetimes with nobody but her brother for company.

The Huntsman, her Huntsman, had been the last to go.

He wouldn’t even look at her, in the end.

“You’re no better than she was,” he’d said, staring determinedly out the window.

She shoved down her tears. “I was only trying to help.”

“It didn’t work.”

—

The king of Gendis was an old, slowly decaying pig with no heir. It was a simple task to swoop in and whisk his kingdom away with a twitch of her fingers.

She had nothing else to do, after all. Why not spread the happiness of her own subjects to others?

Her kingdom was the most flourishing, most fruitful. It would be doing them a kindness, bringing that prosperity.

—

She would be marrying the king of Hartan tomorrow. He looked to be no less cruel than any other king she’d married, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t plan to be married to him for very long.

“Come here, child,” she said, smiling encouragingly at the small fair-haired girl sitting a few feet away. The girl—who was exceptionally beautiful, Snow White noticed with a small amount of concern—stood and walked timidly over to her.

“What’s your name?” she asked, keeping the soft smile on her face.

“Rose Red,” the girl said quietly.

Snow White almost laughed at that.

“Well, Rose Red, I cannot replace your mother, but I hope we can be friends.” She studied the girl, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her young face. “Would that be all right?”

Rose Red nodded, a smile breaking out on her face, transforming it into something as beautiful as the dawn.

Snow White walked down the isle, Rose Red trailing behind her, and vowed to learn from Ravenna’s mistakes.

Ravenna had left her alive as a child, and it had led to her downfall.

She looked back at the girl behind her and smiled. Rose Red was a loose end, and there would be no such loose ends when Snow White ruled.


End file.
